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Bears alone in first place of NFC North, but fans still glum

Following their 23-16 win over the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte Sunday, the Bears find themselves all alone in first place in the NFC North at 5-1 and yet it seems almost no one in Bears Nation is happy?

That's mainly because the Bears offense continues to be a failure in progress, the defense is getting better every week but officials in zebra suits seem determined to unbalance the playing field, and they continue to get occasional direction from the sideline that scream the Three Stooges are at it again.

But at 5-1, historically speaking, they are already a near lock to make the playoffs.

What exactly is going on here?

Following Sunday's game even head coach Matt Nagy wasn't sure how to react.

"It's hard to explain the feeling that we have in this locker room, the 5-1 for our team right now. That's not easy to do," he said. "I told our guys that we're fighters. Can we be better on offense? Absolutely.

"But our defense and our special teams today I thought really played well and put us in great situations. We're doing enough right now to get the wins, and I refuse to take away the excitement that we have as a team right now in that locker room."

So why so glum, chums?

Well, there's a rushing attack that might struggle to gain a first down against a Pop Warner team, a savior at quarterback who is playing barely better than the guy he's supposed to be saving us from, and the occasional game management decision most likely to earn Curly a smack in the head or a poke in the eye.

Far from the guy on the white horse, Nick Foles has looked all too often like a guy riding a donkey and he was none too pleased to hear about it when asked to explain.

"I would first say would you rather lose pretty or win ugly? I think that we'd rather win ugly," Foles said. "I think that is the common thing, so I think it tells you a lot about our team. Is this who we are offensively?"

We're not sure Nick, please tell us!

"We want to improve. We want to get better. We want to have rhythm," Foles said. "But ultimately in the NFL it's about winning games. It doesn't matter how you do it, it just matters that you get it done."

The man does have a point. This isn't gymnastics or figure skating and there are no style points.

The 5-0 Seahawks have the worst defense in the NFL.

The 4-1 Packers got smoked Sunday by a Bucs offense the Bears smothered just 10 days ago.

The Packers defense may be just as objectionable as the Bears offense.

The only other NFC team in their league right now, the 4-1 (as of this writing) Rams will host the Bears next Monday night when, for the third week in a row, we will hope to find out who these Bears really are, and who they can be.

There were highlights Sunday.

Cole Kmet described his first NFL touchdown like this.

"Obviously, it's a dream come true for me. It was just pretty sweet. I knew that there was a possibility that the ball would come to me," he said. "Obviously, it came my way, I made the play, it was just an awesome feeling."

Why he disappeared again shortly after the rare sighting was a bit of a mystery, but let's not pick nits.

The Bears top ranked red-zone and third-down defenses held Carolina, third in the league in total offense coming in, to 1-for-3 and 3-for-13, respectively.

Its recently anointed leader Roquan Smith believes, "I think we have an edge. It's just more so about our mentality.

"I feel that the sky's the limit. We can just continue to build on the positives and get better from our negatives."

Many will say the Bears have just been lucky and better opponents will bring poorer results.

But any objective look around the league leaves us to wonder who those better opponents are?

Are the Bears actually one of the stronger faces of what the NFL has become in this pandemic season, one of the strangest times we've known in modern history?

How much longer will we seek answers where none appear to exist?

They're 5-1.

Perhaps we'd be wise to at least enjoy this a bit while we can?

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